Know how to read a ruler?

Through the many years in my business I have hired all kinds of people......

One person in particular comes to mind and has created many memorable moments. We'll call this person...."Hank", which is not his real name, I just feel it's better this way.
This story goes back a few years, and I had a fairly big crew at the time. I had a big job going which took most of my men, and I took on another job, which I later learned is not a good thing to do. This particular job was to build two decks. One in the front of the house and the other in the rear. I broke up my crew and took Hank with me to do the decks.

First let me say that Hank wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer.......

well in the house, but he was so devoted to me that I put up with his shortcomings and patiently (most of the time) tried to teach him the trade.  The mark out, and the footings, and the frames for the decks went fairly smooth. The decking material went without a hitch also. Now it came time to install the railings and balusters.

I'm the kind of person that wants to do everything myself, 

but because I need to get the jobs done in a timely fashion, I have to trust my men........So, I'm cutting the balusters for the railing, and grabbing the cut ones, and pre drilling them so the screws won't split them, and installing them, and then I notice that Hank is basically following me back and forth like a faithful puppy. I was a bit frustrated with him,  and told him that he needed to be more involved or I would take him home. He agreed.
I set him up on my makeshift work bench to cut the balusters. I showed him how to measure them, and then cut the bottoms at a forty five degree angle.......

"Okay Hank, from the end of the baluster measure up thirty six inches. Now make a mark there and take the square to make a angled mark at that point.......got it?"

He said yes..... I proceeded to cut the baluster, and decided to show him a few more times. "Are you sure you got it now??" I got a reluctant...."yes".
I handed him a ruler, grabbed the few balusters that were cut, and proceeded to install them. While I was installing them, I heard the buzz of the saw, and then I glanced over to him, and he was intently marking a few more. Then the buzzing of the saw again. I was relieved that I had taken this part of the job off of my back.
I went over to the bench to get my newly cut balusters from my now informed worker....
I stood there in....well...confusion. He did in fact cut the balusters, and the forty five was perfect.....but the balusters were only about eighteen inches! He had cut around ten of them like this. First I asked him what are you marking them at?...."Thirty six inches" he said with a proud grin. I said " Do they LOOK like they are thirty six inches???....Look at the ones that are on the railing.....WOULD THESE FIT!!???" He actually looked like he was trying to picture if they would fit, but I took a deep breath, and proceeded to show him a few more times.

This is the actual front porch!

I walked away with the ones that I cut, but this time I was looking back at the table to see what he was doing. Buzz.....Buzz....Buzz... "STOP CUTTING" I yelled over to him. WHAT NUMBER ARE YOU MEASURING AT??........ummmm thirty six inches??, he said cautiously.

This is where I started to lose my patience. I said in a fairly raised tone...

"If you're measuring thirty six inches, then WHY are they the same as the last ones you cut!!??" Hank replied in a defensive voice "I measured thirty six inches....I swear!!"
Frustrated I said..."okay, then show me how you are measuring thirty six inches, because if you are, we have discovered an amazing shrinking property in this wood, and we are going to be rich" He carefully took the ruler, laid it upon the wood.....making sure that the tip of the ruler was exactly even with the edge of the wood. He follows the numbers down the ruler to the infamous thirty six inches,,,,,,and makes a mark!
Hank looked at me with a look of accomplished success.....Until.....I said to him, "are you sure that you are measuring that correctly, because it looks to me if you cut it there, it will be short like the others?" This I believe stumped him....."Well.....I don't know what I'm doing wrong....I did measure right, didn't I?" I couldn't take it anymore and told him to take a good look at the ruler he was using.....He did, but still seemed confused.....I insisted....Look again!....
What he had done was not open the ruler completely. Sure, he WAS marking the thirty six inch mark, but when there are two slats of the ruler not opened.....it just doesn't work.

Moral of the story.......never give a simple person a folding ruler!

Tip of the day....

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With the rainy season about to be upon us, a lot of houses suffer from wet basement walls or actually getting water in the basement.
First thing you want to do is make sure that all of your downspouts (from the gutters) are intact, and draining away from the house. Even if you have to put a piece of pvc pipe to extend it so that it's draining far from the foundation.
 And one of the biggest culprits (and one of the most common) is having the grade pitch toward the foundation walls. If there isn't a proper pitch around the house the rain hits the ground, and puddles up against the walls, sinks into the ground, and sits against the foundation walls, until it discovers how to get in, which it always does. In some extreme cases, this can actually cause a major structural failure, because if enough water sits there, it can cause whats called "hydrostatic pressure" and collapse the wall.  The solution is simple.....Just put more dirt against the house, and have it pitch away into the yard. I see this way too often, and most people can't figure out why their basement is wet or damp. This should fix your problem, and you'll be happy to store your barely used items in your now dry basement!

See you next time......from beyond.........

Honesty is always the best policy

I started my business when I was 29 years old.

I looked like I was 19, and I paid a price for that. Most of my family had that curse, which became a blessing as they aged. I really struggled  to sign up a job because most people wanted experience. I did in fact have experience because I worked with my dad during summer break all through my time at home, and stayed with my Grandfather for one summer who was a stone mason and taught me the fine art of stone work. I also worked for a guy who took me under his wing and taught me everything from deck building to installing tile. But alas, I was a cursed man, and I had to convince my potential customers that I was capable of performing the work.

One story comes to mind.....

I got a call from an elderly woman, who lived alone. During our first meeting she grilled me about how much experience I had, and how I was going to do her job, which was to put decking over her concrete porch. Apparently I impressed her, because I got the job!

During the job, she would come outside to offer us a drink, and while she was there, she would look around at the work, and ask technical questions like.....

"Are you attaching that piece of  wood to the plywood or the two by fours?" and "How many of those post are you going to put in?" and "Is this wood treated to be put outside and how long will it last?"

This IS the actual job, and it's still there 24 yrs. later!

She knew her stuff, as she explained to me that her late husband was a contractor himself, 

and he often did work in the house, and she always helped him. I made extra sure that I cut every piece of wood to the exact measurement, and that every nail was countersunk as not to cut her sweet little feet as she walked on her new porch.
When the job was completed, she came out and asked if we could put her patio furniture on the porch for her.....which we did. She sat me down next to her to pay me. She said to me that she was very impressed with the quality of the work, and hoped that it was going to last a long time. She handed me an envelope of cash, and I quickly put it in my pocket and got up to say goodbye to her. As I was walking away, she insisted that I count the money. Being kind, I laughed and exclaimed..."C'mon, I trust you" But she insisted. Then she got up and walked back into her house. I reached into that envelope and grabbed that cash like it was a million dollars, after all this was one of my very first jobs.
As I counted it.....three times.....I found that in fact there was an error. She had over paid me by $300.00!! It seemed like forever, but I'm sure it was only a few seconds that I began to think "should I tell her?, this extra money would sure come in handy.." But the decent part of me prevailed, and I went to the door to call her. She asked if there was a problem, and I told her that she had over paid me by $300.00.
She smiled at me with the most beautiful smile I've ever seen, and said to me, "I didn't make a mistake, I wanted to see how honest you were, and you passed the test with flying colors! Now I know you did a great job on my porch, and I know you will be very successful in your business, because you are an honest man."
These words from this lovely woman stuck with me throughout the years, and I'm proud to say that I remain an honest businessman today....

My tip of the day.....

As spring approaches...(YAY!!) we should take a look at our front porch. I'm talking about a masonry porch here. Sometimes during a bad winter the concrete, block, stone or brick can move due to the freezing and thawing. This causes small cracks usually around the perimeter of the porch, and especially up against the house. What you want to do is to apply a durable silicone sealant into the cracks and up against the wood to the house. Make sure that it's warm enough and dry. Do this every spring and not only will you add years to your porch but you will be protecting your house from rot, and bugs!

Dap Silicone Plus Premium Silicone Rubber Concrete & Masonry Sealant (Gray)

See you next time......from beyond.........

This is my first post of many.......I hope!

And being my very first post about my life in the wonderful world of construction, but first I'll need to introduce myself. Okay here goes.........
My name is Dominick Allan DiTaranto, I'm a middle aged married male (that's me below) from Central New Jersey.

My story begins many years ago....(fade)..... I met a really sweet young lady while working as a Supervisor on a construction site who soon became my wife. We both discussed our future as Husband and Wife, and how we wanted to bring up our children in this crazy world of ours. Which is when we had (I think it was me) the CRAZY idea to start our own construction business......since I was born into a construction family, and with all of my experience in the construction industry, this seemed like the PERFECT idea!

Well it's been 25 years since then, and WHAT A RIDE it has been!

Through the years, when I would come home to my beautiful wife, I would tell her of my day and the sometimes exciting, sometimes unbelievable, sometimes horrible day that I had. She would listen with a concerned, but yet interested face. She would indulge herself in the conversation, and comment or suggest, so I always knew that she listened and cared.

There was so many times that we swore that we should write a book!  

Well it took me 25 years, so here I go!
This blog is going to be many different things.....Mostly stories of things that I go through owning a construction business. There will also be tips and tricks of the construction trade, and who knows where this will evolve. Suggestions will be appreciated also!

Today for my first post, I'm going to give a really good tip:

Whatever you do, whatever your thinking, what ever your experience.......DON'T start a construction business........Alright, I'm just kidding, it really isn't that bad....here is the tip of the day:

Squaring off an area: 
If you need to make an area square, whether it's a patio, or a deck, or your doing a tile floor, here's a good way to do it.
Let's pretend were going to build a patio off of the back of our house.....
Our patio is going to be 15' X 15' starting at the corner of our house.
First measure from the corner of the house and make a mark (on the foundation) at 15'.

Measure your first line, fifteen feet (away from the house) at a (somewhat)90 degree angle.   Put a stake at that point. (steel stakes are my choice)
You should now have two lines....One against the house and one going into the yard.
Measure across 15' (parallel to the house) and put another stake there. It helps here to have two tape measures, because you can measure the 15' from the house where you put the pencil mark. 
You should now have somewhat of a square. Run a line from your first point onto all of the stakes.....you should have the outside of the patio lined out.
The best way to check the square is the 3 4 5 method. From one of the stakes measure out 3' and make a mark on the line, then from the same stake measure out four feet in the other direction, and again make a mark on the line. Now measure from mark to mark.....If you have a good eye, the total between the marks will be 5'. If not, adjust your stake in or out to achieve your goal of five feet. The illustration below should help. And now your square, and that's my tip!  
One more quick thing....
If you have a really large area to square off.......double the numbers...Example: 6 8 10 and so on...Hope this helped!

See you next time......from beyond.........